Lions Gab: Why Ndamukong Suh hasn't held up team's free agency plans

March 19, 2014

Lions defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh / Associated Press

By Anthony Kuehn

Detroit Free Press Special Writer

Anthony Kuehn is the editor of the Detroit Lions blogLions Gab. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. Get in touch with Anthony at lionsgab@gmail.com or on Twitter @lionsgab.

The 2014 offseason started with a free agent feeding frenzy during the first week of the league year. Over $1 billion was spent on free agents in the first week and several teams were very active and many Lions fans seemed to take note. I have seen and heard quite a bit of backlash about the Lionsí inactivity in free agency. That has mostly manifested itself into attacking Ndamukong Suh for not agreeing to an extension before free agency started, thus handcuffing the team. While it is convenient, it couldnít be further from the truth.

Tom Lewandís recent comments support the fact that the Lions were never going to be major players in free agency this season. If you donít believe him, just look at previous years. The Lions have always kept a pretty low profile in free agency, targeting a few specific players at reasonable prices and aggressively pursuing them.

The Lions were a little more active last year than usual, but the team was coming off a 4-12 season and needed to rebuild the offensive line, defensive line and secondary and they knew they couldnít do it through the draft alone. This offseason, the Lions were not going to be heavily involved for two major reasons: they donít have as many roster holes as last year and with the dramatic increase in the salary cap, spending was going to get out of control.

The Lions were in the same boat last year with Matthew Stafford and they didnít get the deal done in time for free agency. So the Lions went to other players and restructured their deals to create room to maneuver. The Lions could have used that approach this year, but chose not to.

The Lions could have gotten further under the cap by extending Suhís contract, but I donít believe that would have been the goal. There are two ways most teams structure long-term contracts.

The first is they ďbackloadď the contract with high salaries in the later years to keep the cap hit low in the early years of the deal. This is problematic because the contract then either needs to be restructured in the near future or the team has to cut the player and absorb an accelerated cap hit on any bonuses. This is the situation the Lions are in with Suh because his two previous restructurings had the same effect.

The other way teams structure the contracts is by having a huge salary in the first year to eat up cap space they werenít going to use on other players. This allows them to keep the salary and future bonuses more cap friendly going forward.

The Lions have gone through the first scenario with Calvin Johnson, Stafford and now Suhís rookie contract. Johnson and Staffordís second contracts are backloaded as well, so I canít see the Lions wanting to backload a third huge contract and be in the same situation in two or three more years.

Suhís extension will give the Lions some room this season, likely enough to sign their rookies this summer, but I will bet that he still has a huge cap hit this season to ease the burden in the future.

As far as the free agents the Lions ďmissed outĒ on: Jarius Byrd was never going to be an option as long as he was looking for $9 million a year. The Saints had to heavily backload his contract to fit him and they will pay in 2015 or 2016. They have a huge contract for Drew Brees and a huge one coming for Jimmy Graham. Byrdís contract will put them in the same predicament the Lions have been in the last three years.

T.J. Ward turned down more money from the Browns and there are rumors that he was only going to sign with Denver because he felt they have the best chance of winning the Super Bowl this season. So no matter how much cap space the Lions would have had, they likely wouldnít have been able to land him either. Unless they paid Byrd-type money.

Donte Whitner turns 30 this year and cost more than Ward did.

Cornerback is another position fans wanted the Lions to pursue, but I donít think they ever planned on it. The Lions spent four draft picks in two years on cornerbacks and they want to let them develop. They want a veteran as a fall back in case the young guys arenít ready, just like last season with Rashean Mathis. The Lions found that Alterraun Verner and Vontae Davis were going to be well out of their price range. Not what they could afford, what they were willing to spend.

Erik Decker was another name that was thrown around as a potential signing if the Lions had the cap room. The Lions were never seriously interested in Decker, who came from a team that was loaded at receiver and had a great tight end. He never was the No. 1 option that defenses had to pay attention to. Golden Tate however, was the top receiving option on his team and drew the best coverage.

Why is that important if you have Johnson across from either guy? Well, what if you donít have Johnson across from him? The Lionsí offense stagnated when Calvin Johnson was out or hampered by injury. The Lions wanted a player that had proven he could produce when drawing the most attention from the defense and Decker never has.

I was a proponent of re-signing Willie Young and I have heard some fans blame the cap situation for him not returning. That is incorrect as well. Young wanted to start, not be a rotational guy, and he was going to take any opportunity he could get to start. If nobody offered him a starting job, he would have come back to the Lions. The Bears offered him that chance and he took it. That had nothing to do with cap space.

I understand Suhís behavior on- and off -field hasnít endeared him to many fans, but to say he was responsible for the Lions not being active in free agency is wrong. The Lions have other players they could have asked to restructure if needed, like Stafford, Johnson, Stephen Tulloch, DeAndre Levy and Chris Houston.

Martin Mayhew has spent the better part of the last decade dealing with a strained salary cap situation. During the Millen years, the Lions had to overspend to lure free agents to Detroit. Combine that with accelerated cap hits on high draft picks that didnít pan out. Once Millen was gone, Mayhew has had to deal with three of the largest rookie contracts in the history of the NFL. At the time they signed their rookie deals, Johnson, Stafford and Suh were the highest paid players at their positions in league history.

Mayhew has the teamís long-term picture in mind and the evidence points to that as the major reason the Lions werenít going to spend big, not Suhís lack of an extension. Spending big on the free agent market rarely works out for teams and most of the best donít engage in it. The biggest free agent spenders the last few years have been the Rams, Buccaneers, Dolphins, Cowboys and Redskins. Meanwhile, Seattle sat in the weeds waiting and signed valuable players to below market deals once the big money dried up. They went on to win the Super Bowl.

Great teams build through the draft and use free agency to supplement the draft. The Lions have been following that blueprint ever since Mayhew took over and that is the reason the Lions didnít spend big in the first week of the new league year, not Ndamukong Suh.